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Fashion, philanthropy, inspiration and funny seamlessly blended together March 6 at Hotel Arts at Love Her — a fundraiser and friend-raiser in support of Ovarian Cancer Canada. There is nothing funny about ovarian cancer, however, as late detection results in five-year survival rates of less than 30 per cent. Further, there is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer and every year 1,750 Canadian women die from the disease.

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Have you noticed that you haven’t necessarily been eating more or exercising less but gaining weight? The truth is as you age unless you are eating less or exercising more you can expect to gain weight.

Wanda St. Hilaire had a successful sales job, a great apartment and a fine life. She was planning a trip to Italy with one of her dearest friends, and she was celebrating 20 years of being cancer-free. Then she found a lump in her breast. The cancer had returned.

It was a typically spectacular day in paradise — Kaanapali Beach, Maui, to be exact — when Heather Williams was slathering on the sunscreen. For the first time in years, the smart, active 38-year-old felt strong — physically and mentally — after battling nearly 15 years of depression. Facing the blue Pacific, she worked in the lotion, making sure not to miss a spot.

A recent pair of “poor outcomes” involving uncertified birthing attendants in the Calgary area has the province’s professional body for midwives worried public confidence in deliveries without a doctor may be shaken. Diane Rach, president of the College of Alberta Midwives, says the province’s health authority became aware of the home births that went awry after the expectant mothers or their babies had to be rushed to emergency wards at city hospitals.

The provincial health authority is urging expectant mothers to check the credentials of home birthing attendants, after seeing two cases in Calgary that have led to police involvement. According to Alberta Health Services, the two incidents involved “non-certified birthing attendants assisting in labour and delivery in private residences.”

On the night he died, his family cleaned his body, dressed him in his favourite outfit and laid him in his bed. His wife crawled in and fell asleep beside him. The next morning would see the start of a four-day celebration of life that included visits from friends and relatives, a circle of remembrance and a ceremony to send off a man loved by many in his 63 years of life. In days gone by, this is the way we said goodbye. Life’s final passage was intimate, personal and observed by our nearest and dearest.

The world looks a lot less welcoming with your eyes closed. Just try it sometimes, next time you’re out at a theatre you’ve never been to before like, say, the new Ghost River Theatre on 10th Avenue. There, for their new production of Tomorrow’s Child, the only way into the theatre is to slip on a sleep mask, latch onto the shoulders of the person in front of you and be guided, like one of those two year olds in a daycare chain gang, to a chair.

Whether it is a dramatic fluctuation in hormone levels, mood swings or relatively little change in sex drive, seniors’ sexual health is not something that should be contained within the walls of the bedroom.

It had become a morning routine she looked forward to. In the chilly blackness of 6 a.m., Brenda Mork would step up onto bus number 72 in Ogden, grab a seat up front, and settle in for a good long chat with her driver, Doug Hein.

It took 22 needles and 87 radioactive pellets — each smaller than a grain of rice — implanted in her breast, but Doreen Thomson feels confident the last traces of cancer cells have been erased. Thomson, 58, found out in June following an annual mammography that she had early stage breast cancer.

Shortly after the birth of her daughter, Charissa Destiny Calverley had her midwife pack up the placenta into a bio-hazard bag provided by the hospital, and put the package on ice. Calverley then called Susan Stewart of Pure Birth Services and asked her to come and get the afterbirth. Stewart took the organ to her Calgary home where she steamed it, dehydrated it, ground it up and then encapsulated it so her client would be able to swallow placenta pills daily over the first the several months of new motherhood.

A few years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that one of their four top priorities will be epigenetics. At that time I was curious as to how many pediatricians — both in Canada and the USA — were able to explain to the public what the science of epigenetics may involve.

Almost exactly a year ago, Janet Bauman was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her life was immediately flipped upside down. Within a few days of the diagnosis, she had surgery, and shortly after that she started chemotherapy. Then radiation.

The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench has thrown out a Banff doctor’s request for a judicial review of the closure of the maternity ward at Mineral Springs Hospital. Dr. Ian MacDonald claimed that Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health had made the controversial decision without “necessary, appropriate and meaningful consultation.”

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